ST. FRANCIS HOSPITAL'S EDYTHE DAVIS RETIRES; HELPED FORM FOUNDATION

Sometimes, Edythe Davis admits, she feels a little like Cinderella left to clean up after the festivities she helped plan. Friday, the festivities focused on her.

After 22 years of working -- mostly behind the scenes at St. Francis Medical Center -- Davis is retiring. Friday was her last day.

She jokes about those Cinderella feelings. Her job coordinating fund-raising and community relations for the medical center often meant organizing events to promote special projects and programs. Her work behind the scenes was supposed to go unnoticed.

But over the years, Davis has left her mark on the medical center.

She began working in hospital administration at a time when most women employed at hospitals were nurses.

Her first job in hospital administration was in 1967 at Mount Sinai Hospital in Milwaukee, Wis., where she did fund-raising and community relations. She helped the hospital raise $9 million in 18 months, and decided fund raising was her forte.

In 1975, she came to St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Planning was under way for the new structure, which opened the next year. Davis was part of that first move from the old hospital on Good Hope and Pacific and every renovation, addition and new program since. She claims the whole hospital as her own and keeps a watchful eye over it.

When James Sexton arrived at St. Francis six months ago as the new hospital president, he quickly recognized Davis' role in the administrative team.

"I affectionately dubbed her `Mother Superior,' and she holds to that title," Sexton said. "She watches over the direction of our organization. She really represents our history and traditions and values, and she reminds us of those."

For most of the 20 years that Art Kelley has served as chaplain at the medical center, Davis was his boss. "She was a fabulous person to work for. She has been so supportive of what we do in pastoral care. I regret losing her as my boss, but it's more than that. She's part of this hospital."

"She knows the history and the traditions," Kelley said. "She knows more by accident than any of us know on purpose."

And as needs have surfaced, Davis has been on hand to make sure something was done.

For example, in 1976, she started the Saint Francis Foundation, a separate corporation to accept all charitable donations to the medical center. Over the years the foundation has raised over $7 million.

In addition she started the Friends of St. Francis, now an 800-member booster club dedicated to fund raising and friend raising for the medical center.

She helped establish the St. Francis Employee Caring Fund. Employees donate to the fund. Money is used to aid employees in times of personal emergencies.

Davis has worked with the hospital's auxiliary and volunteer programs. The list goes on.

In addition to her official hospital duties, Davis has served as a role model and mentor.

"Even before I worked at the medical center, she was a role model," said Mary Spell, director of public relations at St. Francis. "She has been a role model for all women in the work force. She is fair and honest with bright, energetic ideas."

Whenever Marcia Southard-Ritter, vice president of patient care, needs advice in almost any area, she looks to Davis. "She knows how to get something done," Southard-Ritter said. "She has been a mentor, a friend and sometimes a mother to me."

And over the years, Southard-Ritter said, Davis has accomplished the goal most people in hospital administration set for themselves. "She has truly made a difference for our patients."